Sessions: scheduled and ad hoc

Creating a session needs your church's Owner or a volunteer with Manage sessions access. If you don't have Manage sessions access, ask the Owner to turn it on.

Create a scheduled session for anything that recurs weekly, like a 9:00am Sunday service, and an ad hoc session for anything with no fixed time, like a playgroup or holiday club.

Both kinds have two optional settings: the Location they run at, and the Default check-in duration that's pre-filled when someone opens a room.

Steps to create a session

1. Go to Sessions and press Add session.
2. Give it a Session name. Volunteers read this name on the Today dashboard, so use what your church calls it.
3. Fill in the rest: choose Scheduled or Ad hoc as the Type, and set an optional Location and Default check-in duration. See Check-in duration for what that number does.
4. Press Add session.

Which type to use

Use Scheduled for anything on your weekly rhythm, so the Today dashboard shows volunteers the right service without anyone choosing it from a list.

Use Ad hoc for anything else, like a midweek playgroup, a school holiday program or a one-off parents' evening. An ad hoc session is always on the Today dashboard, so a volunteer can open a room into it on any day.

For something you haven't set up as a session, Open one at the bottom of the Today dashboard opens a room with no session attached. On a day with nothing scheduled, the button is Open a room anyway.

Check your timezone

Each session has its own Timezone, guessed from your computer. Check it when you create the session, because a session in the wrong timezone may not show on Today when you need it.

Troubleshooting

• Your service isn't on the Today dashboard. A scheduled session shows only on the day it runs, so a Sunday service won't appear on a Tuesday.
• The session shows at the wrong Location, or at both. Location is optional and defaults to No location, which means every location. Press Edit on the row and set one.
• You need to stop using a session. Press Archive to hide it. Its history stays, and you can restore it from View archived sessions. See Archiving a room, session or location.